Canadian Hills OE & Voltage Controller

POWER led development of a cutting-edge control system to achieve pinpoint voltage control and directly manage output at the 300 MW Canadian Hills Wind Project, Oklahoma’s largest wind farm. With five separate power purchase agreements (PPAs) and turbines manufactured by two separate companies, the wind farm presented unique control system design challenges. POWER, as design consultant and Owner’s Engineer, drew on the international standard known as IEC 61850 – including a wind turbine-specific extension of the standard known as IEC 61400 – to provide an all-encompassing solution to control turbine and substation systems independently for the five PPAs.

PROJECT FEATURES

Combination of 135 Mitsubishi and REpower turbines.

Real-time automation controller (RTAC) to manage both real and reactive power and realize pinpoint voltage control.

First North American application of IEC 61400 on REpower turbines.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Stepped in as Owner’s Engineer mid-project and successfully got the wind farm online before a critical year-end deadline.

Worked with turbine and substation equipment vendors to overcome equipment compatibility issues with the companies’ differing interpretations of the still-new IEC 61400 protocol.

Created single overarching control system to manage the entire wind farm, linking two self-sufficient control systems together for both the Mitsubishi and REpower turbines.